The Anglican archbishop who was instrumental in delivering peace to Sudan has raised the spectre of full-blown war and appealed for restraint from the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan.
Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak, leader of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, urged the two presidents to pursue peace in spite of the difficulties following the major clashes threatening the fragile peace that churches helped to broker in 2005.
After 140 years of serving the community, a Redditch church is to be shut.
The church commissioners have confirmed that St George’s Church can be closed in line with the view of the church councils of the parish.
The commissioners considered a number of submissions for and against the closure of the church before agreeing with the Bishop of Worcester’s proposals to put into effect the parish request, which had also been supported by deanery and diocesan committees.
Rwandan Bishop Nathan Gasatura–watch it all.
Today is Day 3 of the FCA Leadership Conference. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is addressing the delegates this morning. Tonight, there will be a discussion on the current state of the Anglican Communion.
This is posted especially for your prayers and intercessions–KSH.
Hopes that Arab Christians can enjoy full recognition in their countries’ post-revolution politics appear to have suffered a setback. The political parties that have swept to power in Egypt and Tunisia are attempting to define their nations in narrow ethno-religious terms ”“ as Islamic with sharia as the principal source of law. In Tunisia, for example, the constitution explicitly prohibits Christians from fielding candidates in the presidential election.
Attacks against Coptic churches and Christians in Egypt have increased during and since the revolution, and Arab Christians have allegedly been attacked in Syria. This has led to much soul-searching in the Arab Christian community, whose numbers and political influence have dwindled significantly over the past two decades owing to significant bouts of emigration.
Britain’s drift away from its Christian moorings is impacting its ability to support Christians being attacked in other countries, the Archbishop of Nigeria has warned.
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh made the comments during a meeting at the House of Lords on Tuesday night where he gave a report on widespread attacks against churches in Nigeria.
I am at the GAFCON/FCA gathering in Battersea this week. We’ve been asked not to indulge in too much personal blogging, tweeting, etc, so I’ve not posted anything before, but below is an official release of the opening address.
The mood is good — positive and outward looking, and it has been good to meet so many people from Africa in particular.
Yesterday we had a welcome from the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered by the Bishop of Southwark (in whose diocese we are meeting). That felt odd!
Q: My cousin took us to her church when we visited her a few weeks ago, and the preacher said something about people today being just as idolatrous as people in ancient times. What do you suppose he meant by that, since we don’t worship idols like they did? — Mrs. J.Y.
A: No, we may not bow down to idols made of stone or metal as people did in ancient times (and some people in the world still do). But does that mean we don’t have our own “idols” today — that is, things we serve just as zealously as they did? I’m afraid we do….
The UK is back in recession after a surprise 0.2% contraction in the economy in the first quarter of the year, official figures revealed today.
The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) was driven by the biggest fall in construction output for three years, while the manufacturing sector failed to return to growth, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Apple started off the year with a bang, and that momentum has continued through its second fiscal quarter of 2012.
In fact, Apple saw its strongest March quarter ever, resulting in a net profit of $6 billion. iPhone and iPad sales continue to lead Apple’s fiscal success, delivering a combined revenue of $29.2 billion out of Apple’s total $39.2 billion in revenue Q2 2012.
iPhone sales have barely slowed since the debut of the iPhone 4S in early October….
Actor John Schneider says he just wants to make a difference.
Schneider plays the role of Hannah’s father in the recent pro-life hit “October Baby,” and drifter Sam Doonby in the new movie “Doonby,” a pro-life film from a different perspective. Doonby is being screened to pastors and church leaders.
“The hope is that October Baby will grease the skids so that with these preview screenings Doonby can come out [to the general public] in 500 to 600 theatres,” Schneider said.
Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist hast given to thy Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank thee for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
O Lord God, who dost by thy Holy Spirit endow thy servants with manifold gifts of knowledge and skill: Grant us grace to use the same always to thy glory and for the service of men; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.
–Colossians 1:15-18
In a rare concession, the German Chancellor admitted that austerity alone would not solve the crisis but she insisted that the wave of political opposition to fiscal discipline was wrong.
“We’re not saying that saving solves all problems,” Ms Merkel said at a conference in Berlin. “[But] you can’t spend more than you take in. You can’t live your whole life this way. Everybody knows this.”
When it was over, and the balloons had shriveled and the whistles had faded away, Lionel Messi put his hands to his head. Messi, the slick, slippery forward, was rooted to his spot: it was as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
He was not alone. Around him, the Chelsea players threw their arms over one another, hugging in equal parts glee and exhaustion, while the Barcelona players only stared, as if overwhelmed by two sobering truths: on this day, Messi, perhaps the greatest player in the world, could not score. And Barcelona, perhaps the greatest team in the world, could not win.
Instead it was Chelsea, despite playing a man short for nearly an hour in front of a frenzied crowd at the Camp Nou stadium, that advanced to the Champions League final.
For a glimpse of how Mormons see themselves….it’s worth visiting the Church History Museum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here. Created by believers, for believers, the museum shows how close to the center of American life Mormons consider themselves to be.
The gap is enormous between that perspective and the one embedded in the wider culture. The hit Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” riotously mocks the church’s doctrine. The high-toned HBO soap “Big Love,” which ended last year, relished the complications of polygamy (once endorsed by the church and long since renounced). Reports of posthumous Mormon baptisms of Holocaust victims have fueled outrage. Accusations of extremism and murder appear in thrillers reaching back to Sherlock Holmes’s first case in “A Study in Scarlet.”
For much of this year, Americans’ economic confidence has been threatening to break out of the range seen since Gallup began Daily tracking of economic confidence in January 2008. It actually did so by one percentage point when economic confidence reached a new weekly high of -17 in the week ending March 25. After pulling back in early April, confidence in each of the past two weeks is once again within two points of that previous weekly high.
The continued high confidence seen this past week is likely due, at least in part, to gas prices stabilizing and even showing signs of decline….
Steven Wagner, the president of QEV Analytics, a polling firm that recently conducted a survey for The Catholic Association, said religion could emerge as a sleeper issue in the election: “Everyone says this election is about the economy. I can see the issue of religious liberty being what decides the race. If Obama continues to lose Catholics by the margin the Pew poll suggests, that means he could lose the key swing states of Florida, Ohio, Colorado and Iowa.”
Losses in those states could cost Obama the White House, and the states are likely aware of that fact. Wagner noted the administration will likely try to be careful and avoid provoking Catholic activists before the election.
